Teallach

Teallach is the gaelic word for hearth. The hearth was of central importance in Celtic society. The cottage was build around the family hearth. Turf burned continuously there day and night. This was a symbol of family continuity, where many traditional crafts were carried out. It provided warmth and nourishment and was a gathering place for story-telling and music, it symbolised an open place for hospitality to all. When it went out, it was said that the soul went out of the people of that house therefore it was only extinguished on the first of November - the traditional day of Samhain. Then people would gather together to light large fires on sacred hill tops in honour of and to make offerings to the gods. In both pagan and Christian cosmologies ,fire is representative of the illumination of mind and spirit and of divinity.